Herbs de Provence

I've been playing with paints and stamps and it was so much fun!

I got this idea from www.goodideasforyou.com saw it on Pinterest and loved the idea.

I've seen painted Terra cotta pots but I liked how hers turned out.

Now I didn't have the transfer image papers on hand so I thought I'd use stamps, which I have plenty of.

It wasn't easy to stamp them, so it's not perfect, plus perfect wouldn't be real right?

So I started with plain pots

And I had some sample paints that I purchased for our bedroom, although I won't be using those colors for the room, I thought they'd look nice on these pots

I painted the first coat in green, which I watered down a little

Then put one coat on, not too heavy since I like the Terra cotta color as well and wanted it to show through a little

Let them dry then added the cream color on top of that, I watered that paint down a bit more than the green and used a sponge brush then used a paper towel and rubbed off any excess

Loved how it turned out, then had to let that dry before stamping

Not perfect but that's OK with me.

But I learned a critical thing, the stamp ink takes quite awhile to dry and I thought they were dry enough and started to rub a brown paint that I watered down a bit, over the stamped areas and it smudged some of the ink after that was done, I then waited till they were completely dry to them spray seal them

It was so much fun that I think I'm addicted now.

I planted English Thyme and Rosemary and hope I can grow them indoors with no problem.

OK, so my window is pretty full I know, but I love it!

If you'd like the paint color's just post your message and I'll let you know, I forgot to look and it's downstairs and I don't feel like going back down there AGAIN....

 

 



Cake Pedestals into Plant Pedestal

I've been searching for cake stands for some time now, since we moved into this home.

We have this large greenhouse window, I've always wanted one and living in a Community if we replaced any thing on the exterior it had to be of the same style which meant we had to replace the old greenhouse window with a new one.

(I say we had to because it was a very old window and not efficient)

Thankfully we got it for a decent price, about half of what we would of paid, it still was not cheap but I

LOVE

this window and I have lots of plants to show it.

So as I was saying, I was trying to find cake stands so I can use them to put smaller plants on, give some height as well, but I was not going to pay more than $10 for a plate, even went to Marshall's and TJ Maxx, still nothing that was reasonable enough for me.

So I went to Target and saw these

 



Plates were a Dollar each and candlesticks were $4.00 each, so $5.00 per "cake stand".

Pulled out my trusty glue gun and started gluing, and I had to be quick, as soon as the glue hit that candlestick it wanted to harden fast.

They turned out cute, I may find something I like better down the road but for now it does just fine.

Yes I have a lot of plants and I bought two more today,

I purchased herbs to grow indoors over the winter, now I need to figure out where to place them in that window.

Oh well, not a big problem to have.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Landscaping Before & After's

I thought when I put this blog together I'd be posting quite regularly but no, that hasn't happened since we put our last home on the market.

Life has become insane since all that happened.

Projects are never ending, you finish one and there is another waiting for you.

Plus, work & a life take over as well.

But I am now finally posting our Landscaping project.

When we bought this place it certainly wasn't for it's curb appeal

or

how beautiful it looked on the inside,

no way!

It was price, location and the possibilities.

Our front yard was awful,

whoever lived here look like they tried to do something

but because it being an end unit and on a slope

the yard was washing away.

You couldn't plant anything.

They had holly bushes in front but the roots were exposed since the soil was going down the hill,

So it required building a retaining wall and adding soil.

After the OK from the HOA committee,

the project began and Hubby was the one doing all the work since it would of cost us about $4,000 when it was said and done.

Yeah, sure we'll pull out $4,000 from........

 

Building the wall was stressing him out especially since he NEVER built a retaining wall before.

The internet is a great source of information!!!

After building this we didn't need to buy soil, thank goodness, we had enough after the wall went up and walkway went in, so $$$ saved here.

(Below- before adding mulch)

 

 

After:

We weeded and added mulch and planted a spreading plant, ordered it and came in a root bound ball so still waiting to see if it'll do anything, and we planted impatients as well.

So after moving the soil around, replanting the holly bushes which was a bit stressful because the rules on replanting those were specific and if you did one thing wrong they'd die. Happy to say they are healthy and happy.

Here he's now putting in a walkway to the gate. 

He even added steps, again the internet was a great help, this was a bit of a tough one but he figured it out and it turned out great. 

Here is the after, below, after putting in pea gravel

 

 

 

 

(before adding mulch) 

 

(after adding mulch) 

 

(Holly Bushes doing well)

 

This part is always been hard for me, PATIENCE, waiting on the plants to fill in, controlling myself by not buying so many plants since it does get expensive, but I do go to the nurseries and watch out for sales on perennials.

 

 

We were having issues with some neighbors walking through our front yard to cut across to the main entrance, after putting in the wall and landscaping it finally stopped, even after we landscaped one neighbor insisted on still walking through but I haven't seen him do it, maybe because heard me scolding a young boy who thought he was superman and tried to jump from our wall over our flowers and instead he landed on my flowers as he was running down the slope, I must of looked like a crazy person running out my front door, I'm sure others heard me but I didn't care.

Well, the boy never did that again, in fact I haven't seen him and his friend playing out there since then.

Oh well, we're happy with the results and can't wait to see the flowers fill in and can't wait to add more.